


Inhibition

by elfenphoenix



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff/Comedy, M/M, accidental underage drinking, and I suppose any story with Keith Kogane as emo as he is is gonna end up angsty, but then season two happened, klance, missing shiro, post season two, then angst, then fluff again, this wasn't supposed to be an angsty story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 20:22:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10343874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elfenphoenix/pseuds/elfenphoenix
Summary: It's a few days after the team's big fight with Zarkon and Shiro's disappearance, and both the team and the castle are still trying to recover. Things get a little chaotic when Keith comes back with a nasty head injury after a mission with Lance, and Coran gives him some "medicine" that will dull the pain. The team finds out the hard way that alcohol apparently has no affect on Alteans, but the same can't be said for Keith, who begins blurting everything that's on his mind--which, to Pidge and Allura's surprise, includes Lance.Maybe it's just a way to cope with their loss, but the team is suddenly united by the desire to see the pair become an item, even if they have to use some underhanded tactics to make it happen.





	1. A Long Day

“Oh, they’re back!” Pidge announced as the Red, Yellow and Blue Lions flew toward the castle, heading toward their docking bays.

Allura had sent Hunk, Lance and Keith out on a fight-and-rescue mission to a planet that had sent out a distress signal, since the castle was still too damaged to be dependable in a fight. Pidge had stayed back, to help with repairs. It wasn’t like they could form Voltron, anyway.

Pidge ticked off the seconds until she could tell that they were in the castle. It didn’t take long. _Five… four… three… two…_

“This is all because you were trying to look good in front of some weird alien girl!”

 _That would be Keith_.

“Correction-- I _was_ pretty cool, and she’s a _fish_ alien girl. Aw man-- Mermaids, fish people-- I really _was_ meant to pilot the Blue Lion! Put me in the water any day!”

 _And Lance_.

“You were so focused on doing backflips in your lion that _I_ got hit with debris!”

“ _You_ were the one who charged out of your lion like a madman, swinging without thinking!”

“Hey, hey, guys-- chill out! We got back in one piece, right? And the Lilirians are safe!”

_And that would be Hunk, trying his best to keep the two from killing each other._

“Tell that to my left eye!”

“Well, you know, they say that the ladies like battle scars,” Lance offered, just when they got to the control room doors. Allura and Pidge glanced at each other, then rolled their eyes and waited for the trio to walk in.

“You’re the only one who cares about that,” Keith rebuked.

The doors slid open, revealing Hunk standing between Keith and Lance, looking exhausted. All of them were pretty banged up, but Keith had a HUGE blue-purple bruise around his left eye that made him kind of look like season three Prince Zuko.

“I take it the mission didn’t go as planned,” Allura remarked flatly, crossing her arms.

“Does it ever?” Hunk answered with a shrug, but Keith was covering his bruise with a hand and glaring at Lance through his fingers.

“The Galra attacked at a bad time,” Keith grumbled. “Normally the Lilirians would have been able to defend themselves against a force that size pretty easily, but there was this weird firestorm going on that apparently comes from the moon.”

Allura sighed. “I’d thought that might be a possibility. As I said before you left, Liliria is an aquatic world, but its fiery moon, Liliara, is almost half of the size of the planet and its gravitational pull causes problems. It’s because of that interaction I thought it best to send _the two of you_. I suppose that may not have been the best idea, even with Hunk as balance.”

“I dunno-- Keith and Lance did most of the work, since my lion really is bad with water.” Hunk yawned, stretching. “Maybe we should all just relax. I’m gonna go eat some space goo.”

Hunk left the room, and Pidge could hear him whistling as he strolled off down the hallway. Keith and Lance, meanwhile, were left in front of Allura, who was staring them down like a stern mother. Pidge, meanwhile, did her best to pretend she was invisible.

“Without Shiro here, I’m going to be relying on you two more than ever. That means you have to stop _squabbling_ and start acting responsibly. Keith, you _must_ stop acting rashly. Lance, you have to stop getting distracted during missions!”

“Alright, we get it, Princess. But it’s hard for me to think clearly when my head’s pounding,” Keith mumbled sheepishly. “I’m gonna go use one of the healing pods.”

“Afraid not!” quipped Coran, stepping cheerily through the control room doors, wiping his hands off with a towel. “With the castle still all banged up from our fight with Zarkon, using a pod could be a bit risky until we know all of what is and isn’t fully functional. Sorry, but you’ll just have to deal with the bruise for a while.”

Lance, meanwhile, started sliding toward the doors. “So… I’m gonna… go hang out with Blue, my _best._ Buddy, and, you know, connect and all that stuff. Since last time we went to a water planet, she got a cool new power. See ya.”

And then he was gone.

Keith grumbled, still holding a hand over his eye, “well, do you at least have some kind of painkiller?”

“As a matter of fact, we do! Volarian nuffleberry juice is the best way to dull the pain and still stay alert! Here, give it a try.”

Coran snapped his fingers and a tray popped out of the floor, holding a cup of some purplish-red liquid.

“Can’t say how good it tastes, since it’s been in storage for over ten thousand years, but it should clear your head. Anyhow, I’m back to check on the castle’s defense system. Good luck!”

Then Coran, too, disappeared through the doors, leaving Pidge, Keith, and Allura alone in the room.

Keith looked hesitantly into the cup. Pidge didn’t blame him for his uncertainty. They hadn’t exactly had good experiences with the food or beverages Coran had given them so far.

“Allura, you’ve drunk this stuff before, right? Is… it good?”

Allura scrunched up her nose. “On Altea, _all_ medicine tastes like nuffleberries. It has bad memories.”

“So like grapes, back on Earth!” Pidge offered. “Or at least, in the States.”

Keith sighed. “Well… bottoms up, I guess.” He gulped it down in one swallow, wincing.

But when he set the cup down he had a surprised but delighted look on his face. “This stuff is _good_! This is the best drink I’ve had since we went into space! Is there more?”

Pidge eyed him warily as another tray came out of the floor, holding a jug of the same purplish-red liquid. “I wouldn’t drink too much Altean medicine, Keith. We don’t know how different our biology is from theirs, so it could have some pretty nasty side effects… aaaand you’re not listening to me. Oh, brother.”

Keith flopped into his chair, still drinking the nuffleberry juice. “It looked like hellfire, there on Liliria. It’s hard to believe that’s _normal_ to the Lilirians.”

“Yes, I did warn you about that when you left, didn’t I?” Allura commented, still looking at the castle screens. “Because of the relative size of Liliara, the gravity is unstable, causing the moon to eject fire and rock every decapheeb or so, much of which hits Liliria. I admit, I hadn’t expected you to arrive right in the middle of it, but that does seem to be _our_ luck,” she sighed.

“It was different to _see_ it. And even convincing most of the Lilirians that the Galra were a serious threat-- they just kept saying, ‘oh, it’s just the fire-rain; it’ll pass. No big deal.’ And Lance wasn’t helping, since he met this Lilirian girl named Miraeya.”

Keith took another sip of his juice and then pointed at his bruise with his other hand. “Do you know how I got this? I was down fighting the Galra on one of the Lilirian cities that sticks out of the water, and Lance was supposed to be covering me from the air so I didn’t get hit with any hellfire, and he was doing just fine, but then he started showing off, and one of the rocks exploded and a big chunk hit me in the face. We were just lucky that his lion’s ice powers cooled it down. Otherwise I’d probably be dead.”

Pidge spun in her chair, raising an eyebrow. “Um, Keith, you’re… uh… feeling pretty talkative today.”

It was then that she noticed the weird way Keith was slumped in his chair, and that his usual direct way of talking was slipping-- slurring, even.

“And what is it with Lance and alien girls, anyway?” Keith continued, seeming to not even have heard her. “Is it _just_ alien girls? I mean, he’s flirted with every girl we’ve met, except for you, I guess, Pidge. But is that because you’re a human, or because he thought you were a guy? Even though the rest of us figured it out…”

At this point, even Allura seemed to be feeling like something was _off_ , because she left the control panel and walked over to Keith. “Are you alright? Perhaps your head injury is worse than we thought…”

“No, I think he’s _drunk_ ,” Pidge supplied, getting up to snatch the cup out of Keith’s hand. “Allura, do you know if there’s any alcohol in nuffleberry juice?”

“What’s al...cohol?”

“Oh quiznak.” Pidge lifted the cup to her nose and sniffed the liquid, immediately grimacing. “Oh man, there is _definitely_ alcohol in here. No wonder, since it’s been sitting for ten thousand years.”

“Pidge, Pidge,” Keith groaned, grabbing Pidge’s sleeve. “Do you think Lance doesn’t flirt with you because he thought you were a boy?”

“Ummm… maybe? I guess? To be honest, I haven’t thought much about it, Keith. Let me just help you back to your room, okay?”

Keith’s head drooped in disappointment. “I thought so. He’s only into girls.”

Both Pidge and Allura froze. “Umm… Keith?”

“This is so frustrating…” he whined, flopping forward onto his podium. “He’s a total idiot and a lousy pilot. And he makes stupid jokes all the time and movie references I don’t get, but then he smiles and I get a little crazy. His stupid, uneven grin. Piiiiidge, why do I like his stupid smile so much?”

Allura and Pidge locked eyes, both _realizing_. “Keith… do you… have a crush on Lance?” Allura asked, hesitantly.

“Of course not! I mean… maybe… a little.”

He continued muttering to himself as Allura grabbed Pidge’s arm and yanked her over to the other side of the control room.

“Is this _alcohol_ some kind of poison that twists your mind?” Allura whispered, “making you hallucinate and say impossible things?”

Pidge bit her lip. “Not… exactly. Actually, what it does is lower your inhibitions. You know, what makes you stop yourself from doing what you know you shouldn’t. Alcohol makes that go away, which is why people often do crazy things they wouldn’t do otherwise. Don’t Alteans get drunk?”

“Certainly not! And not on nuffleberry juice!”

“That stuff is ten thousand years old! Juice _ferments_ ! Even I know _that_!” Pidge whispered back furiously.

“Juice doesn’t go _bad_ , otherwise even Coran wouldn’t have made him drink it!” Allura hissed.

“You mean to say alcohol has no effect at all on Alteans?”

“I don’t think so… But wait… if alcohol makes people say what they normally wouldn’t… that means that they _have_ thought that way, just normally stop themselves from saying so?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“So Keith…”

“Really _does_ have a crush on Lance,” Pidge finished.

Both girls abruptly spun to face the drunk Keith, trying to hide the grins that were ghosting across their faces.

Allura strolled forward, toward the door. “Well, I should go… help Coran with repairs, maybe make sure _Lance_ isn’t doing anything destructive,” she added with a wink to Pidge. She disappeared through the door, and Pidge’s head spun. What was _she_ supposed to do with a super drunk Keith?

“Well, first, how about you _not_ drink any more juice, okay?” she suggested, prying the half-empty jug out of Keith’s fingers.

He slumped sideways, looking up at her with his uninjured eye. “I lied about not remembering him from the garrison, you know. Of course I remember him. Him and his stupid dark skin and blue eyes and sideways smile.”

Pidge rolled her eyes. “Oh good God.”

“But everything keeps happening around me and I try not to think about it. It’s nothing, compared to Zarkon, and finding out that I’m… I’m somehow Galra, and now… now Shiro’s missing, and everyone’s looking at me like I can be a leader but I… I can’t. I’m not Shiro. I can’t even control _myself_ , let alone Voltron.”

Pidge swallowed hard at the mention of Shiro and pulled away. “Look, Keith… if you keep it all bottled up, you’re just gonna go crazy. To be honest, I don’t know how you hid it _this_ long, since I couldn’t even hide that I’m a girl. Especially with all the mental bonding we’ve had to do for Voltron. Unless… you didn’t even know it yourself…”

“You think so?”

“Look, I’m no expert. But telling everyone the truth felt a lot better than keeping it to myself. So maybe… you should just tell him?”

Keith jolted upright. “No. No no no nonono.”

He got to his feet, stumbling a bit. “I can’t do that. It’ll ruin everything. It’ll ruin Voltron.”

Pidge froze. “Keith. _Keith_ , calm down.”

 

~~~~~

 

** Allura ***

On her way to go spy on Lance, Allura encountered Hunk taking a plate of food from the kitchen to his room. Naturally, she told him everything, which is how they came to be huddled together on the floor of the hallway just outside Hunk’s room, watching the video feed of a camera Hunk had attached to one of the Altean mice.

“This is taking forever. Can these little guys go any faster?”

“Shush, Hunk! It has small legs.”

“Oh wait, hang on! He’s in the Blue Lion’s docking bay!”

The mouse scurried down the wall to get a better look at Lance, who was sitting on one of Blue’s paws, playing with his bayard.

Lance set it down, looking up at Blue’s expressionless head. “It’s not like I try to screw up, okay? Not everyone can be as cool as Keith without trying,” he was saying-- to his lion, Allura supposed. She had to admit, even in the past she hadn’t quite understood how paladins’ bonds with their lions worked. She was pretty sure it was different for each lion.

She huddled closer, trying to hear better. “I can’t believe this!” she squeaked, urging the mouse just a _bit_ closer with her mind.

“Hang on, I wanna see, too!” Hunk complained. Good thing the camera had a one-way sound feed.

Lance activated his bayard, looking down at the mid-sized gun. “And no one even comes close to Shiro. Blue, you remember that time I saved Slav from the Galra warden by shooting the robotic arm off? And Shiro called me ‘sharpshooter’? That was the best I’d ever felt. Man, compliments from Shiro are the _best_. Except maybe from Allura.”

He paused, setting the gun down. “I still feel like the weak link sometimes, you know? Shiro disappearing, Keith getting hurt. I know one of them’s my fault, so why not both?”

The lion, to Lance's surprise (and Allura and Hunk’s), actually moved, crouching down so that her head was to the ground, answering Lance with a low grumble.

Lance blinked, then laughed. “Thanks, Blue. I _knew_ you would have my back. You’re right; maybe I do just need to focus on what I’m good at. I’ll keep Keith safe next time.”

The lion growled again, and Lance quickly added, “and _of course_ you’re gonna help! You’re my best buddy!”

Allura scoffed, getting to her feet. “Why don’t they just say these things to _each other_?!” She spun on her heel and began to trot off-- a woman on a mission. “That’s it. I’m going to fix this.”

Hunk scrambled to his feet, trying not to drop his tablet. “You’re not trying to get over the loss of Shiro by getting Lance and Keith together… are you, Allura? ...Allura? Hey, wait for me!”

Just then, Pidge’s voice erupted from the intercom in the Blue Lion’s docking bay, which Hunk could hear through the camera.

“Hey, Lance, can you come up here? We have a bit of a… situation.” She sounded out of breath, and there was muffled shouting in the background.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“Keith drank some weird Altean juice and now he’s having a meltdown in the control room!”

“Why _me_?!”

“Uh… the others aren’t responding for some reason. Yeah. C-can you just come up here, please?!”

“Alright, alright, I’m comin’! Just keep him calm until I get there!”

Hunk and Allura looked up from the video feed at each other, nodded, and then hurried off down the hallway.

 

~~~~~

 

**Pidge**

Unfortunately, Pidge wasn’t making up Keith’s meltdown. He really _was_ having a meltdown, flailing about drunkenly with his Galra sword. Well, Blade of Marmora sword.

“I can’t tell him, Pidge. I ca-can’t! Thaat… would be a waste! Why did I… why did I hold back all this time? You… you know why? Because… we’re a team! Team… Voltron! And we have to… stick…” His voice weakened, and Pidge groaned internally to see that he’d started to cry. There was no way she knew what to do with someone who was crying.

“We have to stick… together,” he finished, voice shaking. “It’s better if we’re arguing all the time than if he were to _actually_ hate me.”

“Lance wouldn’t hate you-- he’s not that kinda guy,” attempted Pidge.

“I _know_ that! But it would make it… hard… to be on a team. And I’m supposed to be… a leader.”

He dropped onto the floor, his sword clattering to the floor next to him as he covered his face with his hands. “I can’t be head of Voltron with these kinds of feelings, Pidge.”

Just then, Lance burst into the control room, looking around frantically. He jolted when he saw Keith on the floor, too stunned to say anything.

“I didn’t take Shiro seriously when he said he wanted me to be the next leader. It was _if_ something happens to him. But nothing was going to happen! He’s _Shiro_! I can’t replace him. If I had accepted it… if I was stronger, more in control… maybe he wouldn’t have disappeared.”

Lance stepped forward, his expression softening. “Look, man, it’s not your fault Shiro’s gone.”

Keith looked up, his voice cracking as he blurted, “Lance?”

“Hey, we still don’t know what happened!” Lance continued, “Shiro’s gonna come back and be head of Voltron again, and we’re gonna find Pidge’s family, clean up the universe, and go back to Earth as heroes.”

“You make it sound easy,” Keith chuckled, quickly wiping the tears from his eyes, but Pidge could see the way his shoulders relaxed, even as she slowly snuck out of the room to give the two of them some “alone time”.

“Well I mean, it’s not gonna be _easy_ , especially without Shiro, since if you _do_ become the Black Lion’s paladin, then we’ll have to find a new red paladin. Which might make Red a bit sad since she’s always running out into space to go save your butt.” He paused, trying to gauge Keith’s expression. “But it’s cool. We’re cool,” he quickly backpedaled, then plopped down on the floor next to Keith. “We all miss Shiro, man. Don’t blame yourself. We’re all blaming ourselves right now, and it’s only making everything worse. Why don’t you just blame it on _me_ , like you always do? That’ll make you feel better… right?”

Keith looked up at Lance’s face, as if searching his eyes for details. Scanning, focusing. And then, he suddenly crumbled into Lance’s chest, wrapping his arms tightly around the other boy’s abdomen.

Lance turned into a statue. His arms were petrified in a permanent outward state, the overall body language one of “what am I supposed to do what is going on this is really weird he really IS drunk oh quiznak” -- all at once.

Keith, meanwhile, clung tighter. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“Uh… I’m... not… going to?”

“Not you, too.”

“Okay, okay, just calm down and--”

“No, listen!” Keith urged, burying his face inside Lance’s jacket. “...do you hate me?”

Lance paused. “Nah. I mean, you make me look bad and make fun of me all the time, which is, honestly, pretty annoying, but I think _hate_ is a bit too strong a word. But seriously, what did you _drink_?!”

“Nufleflle… Nufflller… nevermind. Do you… hate me because I’m Galra?”

“Nah, I think purple would look good on you.”

“You’re stupid.”

“Oh, and who’s the one who ignored Pidge and drank mysterious Altean medicine?!”

“Hey, my head feels better. So it worked, didn’t it?”

“Okay yeah, _for now_. But you’re not gonna think that way tomorrow. So… can you… let go of me? This is really freakin’ me out and I’m trying to stay calm because I don’t want to make things worse and have you rampaging again.”

“No. Don’t want to.”

“Um… okay.” He paused. “Why not… exactly?”

“I like you, stupid.”

“What.”

“I liiiiike you, Lance,” Keith grumbled, unwrapping himself from Lance and looking up at his face again.

Lance, this time, was _past_ the “turning into stone” phase and was now crumbling into dust, blowing away through the ventilation ducts.

“You’re drunk,” he finally said.

Keith blinked, reaching up and touching Lance’s face with the tips of his fingers. “You’re an idiot.” And then he was leaning upwards, his eyes unfocusing as they were hidden behind his eyelids… ever closer, until…

Lance stopped him with a hand against his forehead, but his face had lost its shocked expression. “Woah… hey… I don’t want you to do anything you’re not gonna remember tomorrow, okay?”

Keith looked hurt, but slowly nodded… and then promptly passed out in Lance’s arms.

 

~~~~~

 

With no one else in the control room, Lance figured that he’d better take Keith back to his room, and so he draped Keith’s arm around his shoulders, and hauled him to his feet, half-dragging him toward the doors.

Seeing him do so through the soundless camera that she, Allura, Hunk, and Coran had been watching them the entire time with, Pidge scrambled to move out of the way. “He’s coming, you guys! Abort!”

The group had been sitting just outside the doors so they could hear what was being said, making as little noise as they could through every development, and now, as Lance dragged Keith toward the door, were panicking as they scattered in all directions. They froze as the doors slid open. Hunk was pressed against the wall, pretending to be invisible. Coran had disappeared completely down the hallway, and Pidge had tripped on her shoelaces in her attempt to escape. Allura, though, was standing in full view of the door, looking confident.

“Oh, Lance, I didn’t know you were here,” she faked, in her usual terrible acting that would probably fool no one except Lance. “I was just going to check the main computer for an update on the castle’s condition, hahaha…” she paused, “noticing” Keith leaning against Lance’s shoulder. “So he fell unconscious. Do you… need help carrying him?”

From his position against the wall, Hunk aggressively shook his head, but it was too late-- the words were spoken.

Lance looked at Keith, his unconscious form slouched toward him, and then looked back at Allura. “No… I got it. But can one of you bring his sword to his room later? He’ll probably freak out if he wakes up and doesn’t have it.”

“Sure,” Allura breathed, watching as Lance pushed past her, hauling Keith along with him, stepping over Pidge.

They all waited until he was out of sight, and then started breathing again, meeting in the center of the hallway.

“Ten bucks says Keith doesn’t remember any of this tomorrow,” Pidge suggested with a grin.

“Hey now, that would just be awful,” Hunk answered. “...But what if he _does_ remember? Is-- is that better? Or is that-- is that worse? Guys?”


	2. The Next Day

Allura, Hunk, and Pidge were awake and performing their morning rituals loooong before Keith or Lance moved from their rooms. They were far too curious to see how the previous day’s events would play out. Especially since Pidge had ten bucks riding on this.

Allura stood in front of the control room, impatiently tapping her fingers against her control panel. “Neither of them are coming. I’d expect this from Lance, but what is taking  _ Keith _ so long?”

“He’s probably got a huge hangover, Princess,” Hunk explained, “maybe we should let him sleep it off.”

Just then the door slid open, and Keith walked in, an even more sour expression on his face than usual. “‘Morning,” he grumbled, his eyes barely open.

The others glanced at each other, then watched as he made his way to the front. “Any updates on the healing pods, Allura?”

“What? Oh! The pods… right! Well, Pidge and Coran were going to be shutting off some systems today so they can get them fixed… weren’t you, Pidge?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah! We’ll try to prioritize the pods, though, okay Keith?”

He grumbled something sounding vaguely like confirmation, then walked back out the door, followed by everyone’s eyes.

When the doors closed, they all looked back at each other for a few seconds, then simultaneously, without speaking, jumped out of their chairs and began to follow after him.

~~~~~

 

**Coran**

Coran hadn’t slept much while he tried to fix the castle, so he was already awake and attempting to repair the ship’s deep-space scanner when Lance strolled into the room, dressed in his usual day-to-day wear but still wearing his skin-care mask.

“Oh, Lance, good to see you up and about.”

Lance paused, looking around the room. “This… isn’t the kitchen.”

Coran shook his head, hiding a grin under his mustache. “No no, that’s not even close to here. But Hunk made breakfast, so you should go eat something.”

Lance nodded slowly, then started to leave the room, but turned and walked into the wall instead.

Coran raised an eyebrow. “You alright, Lance? You seem a bit out of sorts today.”

“Me? Oh, I’m fine. I think maybe I’m tired from the fight on Liliria. Anyway, see ya, Coran!”

Coran watched him go for a moment, tempted to follow after him, then shook his head and went back to his repairs, musing to himself, “Ah, I remember when I was a cadet that age. Had a big crush on the supervising officer, but that was certainly pushed away when she had me wash a Jarkorian Vollmar as punishment when she found out. Well, the crush stayed, but I didn’t feel like pursuing it. Hmm… I wonder what would’ve happened if I had…”

 

~~~~~

 

Hunk, Pidge, and Allura peeked around the corner as Keith headed to the sinks, noting the way he stared at the water running out of the faucet for like ten seconds before actually splashing it across his face.

He splashed his face about eight times, aggressively scrubbing it after each time, before grabbing the towel and wiping it dry. 

“So… you think he remembers, or not?” Hunk whispered.

“I dunno. He hasn’t given any indication either way,” Pidge answered.

“Shush, you two!” urged Allura, who pushed them over when Keith turned around to look back toward them. This time it was Hunk who lost his footing, jumping to his feet before Keith could walk into him. “Oh hey, Keith. Just gonna brush my teeth. I made breakfast, if you want some.”

“Hmph.”

“R-right! Well, I hear that eating light food helps a little! With the headache, you know. Or you could ignore me. That’s fine, too.”

Again, the trio waited until Keith headed off down the hallway, then followed behind at a distance.

“Is this behavior normal after drinking alcohol?” Allura asked.

“Yeah, it’s a hangover,” Pidge supplied. “My dad says it feels like your head’s getting pounded in by a hammer and your mouth tastes like you washed it out with sand. Not that I ever  _ saw _ my dad drunk.”

“Have you not felt it yourself?”

“What? Of course not!” Hunk interrupted, waving his hands. “We’re too young.  _ Keith’s _ too young. We’d get in serious trouble if this happened back at the garrison. You’re not allowed to drink alcohol until you’re twenty-one years old.”

“Then how old is Keith?”

“Not twenty-one!”

“Shhh, guys, I think Lance is in the kitchen!” urged Pidge, and they all fell silent as they excitedly looked around the corner to watch the inevitable drama play out.

But Keith turned around first, seeing Pidge, since the others had ducked around the corner in time.

“Pidge, are you following me?”

“Huh? Who? Me? No! I’m… on my way to go help with repairs,” she blurted, stepping out into the hallway. She began brisquely walking by, mainly to make sure that Lance  _ was _ , in fact, in the kitchen. Then she stopped, her curiosity overflowing. “Soooo… how you feeling, Keith?”

Keith didn’t answer, just grunted and turned back to the kitchen. Pidge used the opportunity to run back to their hiding spot, just as Lance came out of the doorway of the kitchen, holding a tray of Hunk’s specially-made post-hangover food, almost running into Keith.

“Oh… you’re awake.”

The trio watched as Keith’s face went from hangover-pale to a red that rivaled the color of his lion.

“Oh yes. He remembers,” Allura remarked smugly, followed immediately by Pidge groaning in disappointment and handing Hunk a ten-dollar bill.

Keith backed up quickly, stammering, “I-um… I’m gonna go fight with the gladiator. Training-- yeah, training. Maybe I c-can exercise the headache off.” And then he quickly ran off down the hallway, his face still radiating heat.

“Hey, wait, aren’t you gonna eat?” Lance called after him. “Hunk made this stuff for  _ you _ , you know! Keith?!”

 

~~~~~

 

**Coran**

The door opened again, and Lance walked in once more, this time holding a plate of food and looking mystified, if a bit hurt. Coran also noticed that he was no longer wearing the face mask.

“Hey Coran, what exactly was  _ in _ that weird juice you gave Keith?”

“Pidge says it’s just something you Earthlings call alcohol. Should be alright in a while, but he might not remember anything that happened yesterday. It might be best that way, if he forgets that he confessed to you and all that.”

“I don’t know if he would… wait, how do  _ you _ know about that?”

Coran whitened, turning around with an “oh quiznak” look on his face, stumbling over his words. “Well-- it wasn’t my idea, you see… Allura just loves gossip, and…”

Just then the doors slid open, dumping Hunk, Pidge, and Allura into the room with a collective “OOF!”

They all got to their feet, looking guiltily everywhere around the room except at Lance.

“I suppose the secret’s out,” Allura announced, sighing. “We saw everything.”

The three of them started explaining at once, to which Lance listened as best as he could in shocked silence.

“You mean you guys knew the  _ whole _ time?! All of you set this up?!”

“Well, not exactly,” Pidge interjected, “we didn’t  _ know _ what would happen. Keith said and did all that on his own. We were just… curious.”

“Still not cool!”

“Alright, we acknowledge that it was wrong to listen in, but  _ you _ still have a problem,” Allura noted.

“Me?”

“What  _ is _ your response to Keith’s confession? Since you didn’t actually give him an answer yesterday, it’s no wonder he’s flustered.”

“Yeah, that was pretty smooth, though,” shrugged Hunk, which was answered by a glare from Pidge.

Lance set his tray of food down and then leaned against the wall. “I… I don’t know. To be honest, I thought he’d want me to forget it happened.” He looked down at the floor, falling silent.

The rest of them exchanged glances, and finally Pidge broke the tension by sighing and stepping forward. “Look, we’re sorry for being nosy. I guess we just wanted to get our minds off of… things. But for now on we’re  _ all _ gonna stay out of it.”

She turned to the rest of the group. “I’m going to stay with Coran and help with repairs.  _ Seriously _ , this time.”

“I’m, uh… I’m gonna go look at the main engines and see if I can re-route the damage,” Hunk supplied, looking at Allura, who nodded.

“Of course. We all have work to do. Lance, you and Keith should… just rest for a while.”

They all scattered, leaving Lance alone again.

 

~~~~~

 

**Lance**

 

Lance didn’t really know where he was headed when he got on the elevator. He didn’t really have anything to do, since he wasn’t a tech-head like Pidge or a mechanic like Hunk. He always felt pretty useless at times like this. Maybe he’d just go to the pool.

The doors opened shortly after he stepped in, revealing Keith, looking a bit out of breath from training.

The other boy’s face immediately reddened again, but this time he looked away and stepped into the elevator.

“What floor?” Lance asked cautiously.

“Third.”

They stood in silence for a while, waiting for the elevator to move.

_ Awkward, awkward, awkward! _ Lance thought, trying to look everywhere but at Keith.

And then the elevator lights went out.

“Aw, come on!” Lance cried out, glaring up at the elevator shaft. “Do you guys have something against letting me use the pool?!”

Pidge’s voice rang out over the intercom. “Hey, are you guys in the elevator right now?”

“Yes,” Keith answered angrily.

“Woah, sorry man!” -Hunk, this time. “It looked like the life support system was damaged in the blast, which is, you know, kind of important, so Pidge and Coran had to cut some non-essential systems until I can fix it.”

“Just sit tight for a bit, okay?” Pidge asked.

“Fine. Just… hurry up!” Lance shouted back, then leaned against the wall of the elevator. “ _ Man _ , not this again.”

More awkward silence followed, to such an extent that Lance would have felt relieved if it had even been punctuated by the ticking of a clock or the chirping of crickets-- just something, ANYTHING to fill the silence.

Then, finally, he asked, “So… um… how’s your head?”

“Kind of makes me miss the trials of the Blade of Marmora.”

“I don’t really know what that means, but I’m gonna assume it’s not good.”

Keith’s lips twitched upwards. “Right. You weren’t there.”

More silence.

“Hey, I’m sorry for showing off on Liliria. It’s my fault you got hurt.”

Keith looked up, eyes wide. “Really?”

“Why’re you so surprised?”

“Nothing. I just… didn’t expect you to admit it.”

“Not everyone can be as cool as you are all the time, you know. But I have my moments.”

Keith coughed a laugh. “You don’t mean that.”

“No, I do, I do. I mean, you fought an evil Galra witch by yourself, spent a bunch of time out in the desert looking for ancient alien weapons, flew into an asteroid field, and turned your cool alien knife into a cool alien sword. That’s pretty awesome. That’s like… over the top with awesome, and I think you need to tone it down.”

“You were pretty cool, too, when we were in the Balmera,” Keith replied. “I was just going to run in, but you had a plan. And when we first found the Blue Lion, and you tried to blow up a Galra battleship just to get it away from Earth, and then flew through a wormhole without hesitation? That was all pretty cool.”

“Didn’t you call me ‘the worst pilot ever’ back then?”

“Still true.”

They both laughed, and then Keith leaned against the elevator wall next to Lance, crossing his arms. “We’ve been through a lot, huh?”

“Yeah. It’s a long time to be jealous of you,” Lance sighed, closing his eyes.

“Huh? Of  _ me _ ?”

“Well yeah! I mean, you’re even part alien! How cool is that?!”

“You’re jealous of  _ that _ ?!” Keith remarked incredulously.

“Yeah. You’re just too cool, Keith. Galra and all.”

More silence, and then Lance added, peeking at Keith with one eye, “since I always did have a  _ thing _ for hot alien babes.”

Keith didn’t seem to get it at first, but then realization slowly dawned across his face, followed by a pink, then red tint spreading across his cute cheekbones as he looked up at Lance. “Wait, you mean  _ me _ ?”

The tension snapped, and then the two of them were laughing and laughing, doubled over with it, the sound of it echoing up through the elevator shaft.

When they finally stopped, Lance tried to stay calm and cool as he leaned over and, very gently, gave Keith a light kiss, ghosting across the surface of his lips.

He pulled away, heart hammering. “You’re not gonna forget that one, right?”

“Nope,” Keith answered, before grinning up at him. “And I’m not gonna forget this one, either,” he announced before grabbing Lance by the jacket collar and pulling him down to his lips, kissing him much more fiercely, his face still warm to the touch and scrunched up and focused and way too cute.

But Lance could get used to this. He could  _ definitely _ get used to this.

 

~~~~~

 

**Pidge**

“Aw, man, what do you think is going on in there? It’s not… it’s not anything weird, right?” Hunk asked nervously.

“We can’t know, since Pidge had to cut the cameras,” Allura complained accusingly.

“Come on, guys, I promised Lance I’d give him some privacy. I already broke that promise by cutting the power to the elevator.”

“Well, to be fair, I really  _ did _ have to fix the life support system,” argued Hunk.

“ _ Anyway _ ,” Pidge grumped, “I had to have  _ some _ human decency. They’ll figure it out on their own, I’m sure of it.”

They waited a while, all focusing on their respective tasks, and then Pidge decided it was time. She hit the “power up” command on her computer, then turned on the intercom to the elevator.

“Sorry for the wait, guys! I’ve rebooted the system, so you should be able to come out now. I’ll meet you on the third floor.” 

Without waiting for a response, Pidge got up and hurried down, arriving just in time to hear Lance and Keith’s voices rise to greet her. 

“Fine-- we can  _ both _ use the pool, but you are  _ not _ using my rubber ducky!”

_ That would be Lance _ .

“Where did you even  _ get _ a rubber duck? And why would I want to play with it?”

_ And Keith _ .

The whole crew was waiting there as the pair got out of the elevator, still squabbling.

“Thanks, Pidge,” they said in unison before brushing past her and continuing down the hallway, still arguing.

“Blue Paladin’s all for water anyway, and I’m gonna prove it in the pool!”

“Oh, you’re on.”

Their stupid argument elevated as they continued past, the rest of the crew following them with their eyes, trying to piece together what had happened in the elevator.

“I don’t think it went well,” Allura whispered to Pidge.

Pidge just smirked, pointing down the hallway. “Nope, they’re not fooling  _ anyone _ . Look. They’re holding hands.”

Everyone looked, to see if Pidge was telling the truth.

Sure enough, even as they argued, Keith and Lance were walking hand-in-hand, their fingers intertwined.

Pidge crossed her arms, feeling satisfied. “Glad that’s over with.”

“But what now?” Hunk asked.

“Now, we’re going to fix this ship, and not get distracted,” Allura commanded. “And after that, we’re going to find Shiro. He’ll want to see this.”

Pidge turned, still smiling to herself, if a bit sadly. “Yeah. He will.”

**Author's Note:**

> A loooot of headcannons went into making this, lol. Number one, that Lance has a closer bond with his lion than any of the other paladins, but in a very Lance-like way. So, connected to that, even if he feels a lot of insecurities, he doesn't say them where any of his team can hear him, but tells Blue pretty much everything. Also, most of this is told through Pidge, who somehow became the ultimate wingman in this story, even though she thinks of the crew mostly as a bunch of weird older brothers.
> 
> Other headcannons include Hunk being the Good Friend who makes breakfast out of consideration for a sensitive stomach, Allura being nosy as hell, and Coran being 100% unable to keep secrets.


End file.
